FILE — Former Congressman Tom Tancredo pictured in this Oct. 15, 2010, file photo announced on a radio talk show in Denver on Thursday, May 23, 2013 that he is running for governor of Colorado in 2014 on the Republican ticket.

State Sen. Greg Brophy has issued the ultimate insult to gubernatorial rival Tom Tancredo, saying the former congressman’s record on gun control is “weaker” than Gov. John Hickenlooper’s, the Democrat they want to unseat in November.

Brophy pointed to Tancredo’s support for a bill adding gun restrictions in the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999.

But whether Brophy’s latest jab against Tancredo — he has also called him “unprepared” and a “loser” — is hurting the presumed GOP frontrunner is up for debate.

Maybe, said political consultant Steve Welchert, a Democrat.

Not at all, said Tancredo.

Absolutely, said Ken Clark of the conservative show Grassroots Radio, 560 KLZ.

Welchert said Brophy is “trying to pick a fight with the lead dog in the race to elevate his status,” and gun control could be a problem for Tancredo in the primary.

“But I don’t think you beat John Hickenlooper on guns,” Welchert said. “You better come up with something else.”

Tancredo said Brophy is on the attack because he’s down in the polls and struggling to raise money.

“He’s dead man walking,” Tancredo said.

But Clark thinks Tancredo has problems on several fronts, including voting for the gun bill in 1999 and TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in 2008, after a banking crisis.

Brophy also noted that after he sent out his news release on Tancredo this week, he received a text message from Dudley Brown, executive director of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the most strident gun rights group in the state and a major player in Republican primaries.

“Buh-BAM!” Brown texted. “Ouch — gonna leave a mark.”

Hickenlooper’s popularity may have faded over the past year, starting with his support for tougher gun laws in the 2013 session, but Coloradans tend to like their governors and re-elect them to office.

Six GOP hopefuls, including Brophy and Tancredo, are trying to stop that trend.

“Gun control will be a seminal issue of this election,” Brophy said. “If Tancredo were the nominee, it would give the Democrats a chance to say, ‘neener, neener, neener,’ your guy is the same as ours on this issue.”

Brophy also said Tancredo’s interview with the New York Times after Columbine echoes some of the same sentiments Hickenlooper made in pushing for tougher gun controls in the aftermath of massacres at an Aurora theater and a Connecticut elementary school in 2012.

Tancredo said his position has evolved since Columbine, which was in his congressional district and impacted close neighbors and friends.

“I think we’ve all learned a lot about this issue,” he said this week. “The only thing that stops a bad person with a firearm is a good person with a firearm. That’s it.”

Tancredo was the only member of Colorado’s six-member House delegation who voted for the 1999 bill which, among other things, provided a one-day background check for weapons sales at gun shows and increased penalties for people who committed a crime using large-capacity ammunition magazines.

Gun-control advocates assailed him for supporting a bill they said watered down current laws. Gun-rights groups criticized him, believing the bill was too restrictive, and even protested with huge placards outside one of his fundraising dinners in metro Denver.

On the campaign trail this time around, Tancredo has repeatedly hammered Hickenlooper for signing gun-control measures into law last session, including a bill that limits magazines to 15 rounds.

Tancredo also worked to recall two Democratic state senators who were ousted in September because of their support for tougher gun laws.

Tancredo said he expects more attacks from Brophy, which he believes hurts both of them and likely helps another candidate in the race, although he’s not sure which one.

Also running for the GOP nomination for governor are Secretary of State Scott Gessler, former Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, businessman Steve House from Brighton and Jim Rundberg from Meeker.

The candidates had until midnight Wednesday to file their campaign finance records from the last quarter.